2006 Australian Superbike Championship (YMF Loan) - Round Four - Queensland Raceway

Repsol Honda Day 1 Report

With the excited atmosphere already building, practice began today for the crucial Grand Prix of Valencia, the result of which will decide the result of the 2006 MotoGP World Championship. Repsol Honda’s Nicky Hayden, who goes into the last race fighting for the title, made a strong start to the weekend, lapping consistently quickly on race tyres at a track he really likes.

With the riders in front of Hayden apparently setting their fastest times on qualifying tyres, Hayden’s pace looks promising for qualifying tomorrow and Sunday’s 30-lap showdown. The Kentucky-based star, who trails Valentino Rossi by just eight points in the title chase, is being filmed this weekend by a crew from MTV, the American TV station.

Dani Pedrosa was also quick on race tyres today, setting a time just 0.235s behind Hayden’s best to finish the day with the sixth fastest time. The 21-year-old Spanish rider took his time to adapt to a MotoGP bike at the 4.005km (2.487 mile) circuit this morning before setting a string of laps in the 1m 33s bracket this afternoon. Qualifying takes place here tomorrow at 14.00 CET.

Nicky Hayden 4th – 1m 33.019s
“The bike’s working pretty good and I’m having fun. It wasn’t a bad start but I want to be fastest outright here in every session and every lap so I’m not totally satisfied with the day. I don’t want get into any of that “fastest Michelin” or “fastest race tyre” stuff and I’d have liked to have got into the 1m 32s today on race tyres. There are a few guys in front of us going quick so I definitely need to find some time. I’m having fun this weekend and my team’s doing an awesome job – Pete and the boys are really behind me and are going to ride to the end with me. Qualifying’s going to be huge tomorrow so I’ve really got to be on that front row - we’ll see what happens. There are a lot of guys going fast and not a lot separates them – a couple of tenths is a lot around here and it’s a hard place to pass. I’ll just try my hardest this weekend and see what the big guy’s got planned.”

Dani Pedrosa 6th – 1m 33.254s
“Today we had a normal first day of practice. This afternoon we tried many different set-ups for the bike and we found some things we liked and some things that didn’t work so well, so we’ve found the right direction to take for tomorrow. It’s a very different track on the RCV compared with a 250cc bike - the MotoGP bike feels much heavier changing direction and in the many small straights you go much faster into the next corner which takes some getting used to. This is a very important race as everybody knows, so me and the team will try to do the maximum we can. I will try to do my job and also for sure we have to help Nicky to do it. It’s going to be a very exciting weekend with all the Spanish fans supporting us and being the last race of the season it’s important for everyone.”

Makoto Tanaka - Team Manager
“We had a good first day for the final race of the season. It seems that the top three on the timesheets today set their times on qualifying tyres but Nicky and Dani set their times with race tyres and showed good consistency. We still have a lot of work to do tomorrow but our riders have very strong powers of continuous concentration. The lap-times will improve still further if we continue to have good weather and I’m very much looking forward to qualifying tomorrow.”